Golden Knights Rally Past Avalanche 5-3 in Game 3 — Hockey Scores Tonight

Hockey scores tonight put the Vegas Golden Knights one win from the Stanley Cup Final after a 5-3 comeback over the Colorado Avalanche in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final. Vegas erased a 3-0 first-period deficit and now leads the series 3-0, leaving Colorado one loss from elimination.

Golden Knights Chase Down Colorado

Colorado opened fast. Gabriel Landeskog tapped home a rebound just a few minutes into the first period, then Martin Necas set up Nazem Kadri a little over three minutes later for a 2-0 lead. Landeskog finished with his fifth goal of the playoffs, and Kadri scored his third of the postseason.

Vegas answered in the second period and did it quickly. Mark Stone scored 19 seconds into the period in his return to the lineup, William Karlsson added his first goal of the postseason later in the frame, and Keegan Kolesar tied it at 3-3 with his first goal of the playoffs before the period ended.

Tomas Hertl Breaks the Tie

The turn came a little before the halfway mark of the third period, when Tomas Hertl scored his first goal of the series to give Vegas its first lead of the night. Brett Howden sealed it with an empty-net goal as time wound down, closing out a game that flipped completely after the opening 20 minutes.

That comeback also fit a larger pattern for Colorado. The Avalanche have now blown leads in back-to-back contests for the first time this year, and they did it against a Vegas team that kept pressing even after falling behind by three. Nathan MacKinnon blocked a one-timer from Shea Theodore in the second period and took the puck off his right knee, then returned to the game but was a shell of the force that had made him one of the premier players in the game.

Colorado Faces Elimination Pressure

Colorado still has the burden of a 3-0 series hole. The Golden Knights handled the night’s biggest swing by getting goals from Stone, Karlsson, Kolesar, Hertl and Howden, and they did it after the Avalanche had controlled the opening stretch. For the Presidents’ Trophy winners, the margin for error is gone.